His big muscles aren't the only reason Urban Meyer was able to lead Ohio State to the school's sixth undefeated season.Jamie Sabau/Getty Images

Everybody knows the story: When Jim Tressel and Terrelle Pryor were forced out of town, Luke Fickell and Braxton Miller forced them into positions they weren't quite ready for and the Buckeyes went 6-7.

Going into 2012 season, the good news for incoming head coach Urban Meyer were that the team was returning most of their starters from the previous season. The bad news were that those starters were the backbone to the seven-loss team in 2011.

Fast-forward a year and here are the Buckeyes celebrating a 12-0 season and likely top five ranking in the AP poll at the end of the season. But how did it happen?

I would be remiss if I didn't give credit to the Buckeyes' players, especially the seniors, for turning around their careers and putting Ohio State back on top of the Big Ten.

But the key to Ohio State's turnaround was the man that came out of retirement just to lead the biggest program from his state back to national title contention. In doing so, Meyer showed how vital it is to have the right coach for a team to have success.

"Urban Renewal" is Nothing New for Meyer

Looking through Meyer's coaching history it should come as no surprise, he has enjoyed quick and successful turnarounds at every one of his other three stops as a head coach.

In the Falcons' first season under Meyer, they improved to 8-3. In Meyer's second season, he led Bowling Green to a 9-3 record featuring two wins over Big 12 teams—Kansas and Missouri.

After two years at Bowling Green, Meyer headed west to Utah where he took over a team coming off a 5-6 season. All Meyer did was lead the Utes to a 10-2 record, a Mountain West Conference Title, two wins over the Pac 12, a win in the Liberty Bowl and finished No. 21 in the AP poll.

They were playing for a coach that had interim in front of his name. They were playing for a senior class that had several of its members sidelined due to suspensions for much of the year.

Meyer wiped the slate clean and gave his team a fresh start.

He put pressure on his coaches and the seniors to lead and most importantly made everyone in the program accountable.

Meyer didn't stop with private team meetings either, he would tell the media exactly where each player stood.

Meyer was one of the last people in Columbus to jump on the "Miller for Heisman" bandwagon. He called out players who weren't preforming as well as he thought they could, but also encouraged his players through the media as well.

Along those lines he made himself and his coaches accountable to the team.

Meyer was never afraid to admit his mistakes or the coaches' mistakes in front of the press, and that certainly helped him to win the team's trust.

Perhaps the best example of his motivation during the season was the Michigan State game. Even though Ohio State didn't play their best game in East Lansing that day, it was easy to see something special was building between the players and the coaches.

That became even more apparent when Meyer joined the team in celebrating.

It came out later that Meyer's speech to the team before the game was focused on getting them to open their hearts and play for each other. That made the superman-like more the team and Meyer were doing after the game make more sense.

Adjusting on the Fly

Meyer didn't recruit the guys like John Simon, Zach Boren, Carlos Hyde and Braxton Miller, but that didn't keep him from adjusting his system to fit the pieces he had.

Meyer was lucky to have a QB with the athletic ability of Miller to bail the team out occasionally and seniors like Simon and Boren to lead. But it still takes a special coach to realize his normal way isn't the only way to win.

Likewise, Meyer and the coaching staff repeatedly showed their ability to diagnose a weakness one week and have significant improvement in that area the next week.

For example they couldn't tackle against Cal and then shut down Michigan State and Miller had poor mechanics against Penn State. In the next three games, he completed 65 percent of his passes—seven points higher than his season average.

Once again, having players with ability is the most important factor when trying to build a great team. But a team with all the talent in the world without a good head coach could end up like the 2011 Buckeyes or the 2012 Razorbacks.